Two senior San Diego city officials have blasted City Attorney Michael Aguirre for seizing documents from their offices and alleging they had obstructed justice, but Aguirre said yesterday his actions were proper and backed by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Hinting at cover-ups, Aguirre told a Friday news conference that the boxes contain documents subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is investigating city finances along with the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office.

U.S. Attorney Carol Lam called Aguirre and several other lawyers representing the city and retirement system to her office yesterday, reportedly to inquire about the hand-over of subpoenaed documents.

The investigations focus on, among other things, the city's underfunding of the $3.2 billion San Diego City Employees Retirement System, which has a $1.2 billion deficit.

Lam declined to comment yesterday.

Aguirre said Lam called the 90-minute meeting to reiterate that subpoenaed documents be turned over quickly and "to clarify the fact that the City Attorney's Office did appropriately seize these documents."

Meanwhile, Vattimo said she was "appalled" at Aguirre's actions in a memo yesterday to City Manager Lamont Ewell.

On Tuesday, Lexin said in a memo to Ewell that Aguirre's actions were "improper, appalling and harmful to the City and to me."

Lexin asked Ewell to "immediately address this serious conflict before more harm is done" and to be replaced on the city's labor-negotiations team because it includes representatives of the City Attorney's Office.

"How is it that the City Attorney's Office can act as my legal counsel on the one hand and, on the other hand, simultaneously accuse me of wrongdoing?" she wrote.

Aguirre has vowed to help federal investigators and says his duty to the public trumps his duty to city officials.

In response to the memos of Lexin and Vattimo, Aguirre said: "These people are still in cover-up mode, when they should be moved from those positions."

Also called to Lam's office yesterday were Paul Maco of the firm Vinson & Elkins, which is representing the city in talks with the SEC; and Michael Leone and former U.S. Attorney Gregory Vega of the firm Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek, which represents the retirement system.

"No comment," Maco said as he entered the federal building downtown for the meeting.

Afterward, Leone declined to discuss the Lam meeting, but said he and Aguirre came to terms on allowing Leone to inspect the boxes for any privileged attorney-client communications between the retirement system and its lawyers.

In their memos, Lexin and Vattimo said they had complied with a previously established protocol for handing over documents subpoenaed by federal investigators.

Vattimo said she was instructed to hand over documents she held as a city official to the City Attorney's Office, and documents she held as a pension fund trustee to a private attorney.

Lexin and Vattimo served as pension trustees until recently. Webster still is a trustee.

Aguirre's remarks Friday were made as he unveiled the first of several reports on his investigation into city finances.

Aguirre will discuss his findings at a public forum at 5:30 p.m. today in the City Council chambers, 202 C St. Yesterday he complained that the City Manager's Office had refused to broadcast the forum live on the city channel.

Also yesterday, Aguirre said the failure of a member of Mayor Dick Murphy's Blue Ribbon Committee on City Finances to fully disclose his knowledge of the pension system's slide hampered Maco's investigation of city finances last year.

In a 268-page report, Maco had praised the Blue Ribbon Committee for warning of troubles at the pension system even though it only had information on the system's assets from 2000.

Aguirre said committee member Richard Vortmann should have disclosed information, contained in Vortmann's February 2002 letter to retirement board President Frederick W. Pierce IV, that the system's assets were plunging rapidly.

Vortmann has said the committee's fieldwork was done months before that letter, and that the committee warned Murphy and the City Council of troubles at the pension system.